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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27591770">The Sisters of House Rocks (and their Baby Brother)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebornlover/pseuds/rebornlover'>rebornlover</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Crown of Candy - Fandom, Dimension 20 (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Gen, sister/brother bonding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:35:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,671</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27591770</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebornlover/pseuds/rebornlover</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Some short ficlets exploring the relationships between Amethar and his sisters before and during the Ravening War</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Catherine Ghee/Amethar Rocks, The Sisters of House Rocks &amp; Amethar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. General Rococoa</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintDeanThomas/gifts">SaintDeanThomas</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rococoa was in the middle of a sparring session when she noticed her little brother hiding in the bushes. It was a quick flash of bright pink, just at the edge of her vision. Her opponents in this spar were three members of the tart guard; Ronberry, Bluebert and Rhubarb. None of them seemed to notice that they had a new audience. She smirked slightly, apparently Sapphria’s sneaking lessons were paying off. Good.</p>
<p>‘I say, Your Highness, I think you may have let your guard down!’</p>
<p>The tart guard rushed her, Ronberry heading straight at her while Bluebart and Rhubarb tried to box her in on the sides. It was a good maneuver. Not good enough</p>
<p>Rococoa ducked to the side as Ronberry’s fist flew at her head. She grabbed his overextended arm, using his momentum to swing him around. She managed to catch both Rhubarb and Bluebert in the wide arc of his body and with one move all three of them had been removed from the ring.</p>
<p>She smirked as she heard Amethar leap up cheering from the bushes.</p>
<p>‘That was awesome!’ He jumped around a little on the spot. He had been a small child but as he entered his teenage-hood he was rapidly putting on weight and height. It was good for his warrior lessons but it did make his enthusiasm somewhat funny to watch.</p>
<p>‘Aren’t you supposed to be in classes, Ame?’ she asked, turning to face him with her arms on her armored hips.</p>
<p>‘Aww, Lapin is just going on about boring stuff! I don’t need to know any of that.’ He pouted.</p>
<p>Rococoa shook her head and gestured him over to her so she could pick the leaves off his doublet.</p>
<p>‘You are a Prince of the House of Rocks, Ame. It’s important that you take all your lessons seriously. Not just sneaking and fighting.’</p>
<p>‘But I’m not good at any of the politics stuff. And why would I need to know about the Dairy Islands?You’re gonna be the Queen anyway! And... and’</p>
<p>Amethar looked around them at the tart guard members who had picked themselves up off the ground and were now standing in a line at the edge of the ring, waiting for further orders. She gestured for them to leave the training area for a minute.</p>
<p>‘And... You’re still having problems with your reading?’ She asked gently. Amethar could be prideful about his shortcomings and it had driven him to tears as a young boy when they had him sit through long lessons. She didn’t want to open up bad feeling.</p>
<p>‘The letters move when I look at the page. I know Mama and Papa don’t believe me but...’</p>
<p>‘But I do. If you say there’s a problem Ame, there’s a problem. Maybe we could talk to Lapin and in exchange for you listening a little better he can read all of the material to you?’</p>
<p>Amethar still looked slightly put upon about having to return to his classes but he nodded.</p>
<p>‘Excellent!’ Her armoured hands made a loud clanging noise as she clapped them together.</p>
<p>‘Now, how about your big sister shows you how to handle a sword?’</p>
<p>Amethar grinned wider than the sun and ran off to grab a couple of training swords. Rococoa smiled to herself. It took a little encouragement but Ame was a solid kid. He would do great things someday.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Arch Mage Lazuli</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lazuli had always been somewhat distracted as a child. Prone to daydreaming, her parents and tutors often said. They were fairly boring daydreams most of the time. Many had to do with her life inside the castle, her family.</p>
<p>She often experienced deja vu. Sometimes it was hardly noticeable. Sapphria and Ame might be playing at their sneaking games, hunting each other through Castle Candy. She would see one of them surprise the other out of the corner of her eye, and the cry of delighted shock would echo from a dream she had had. Or sometimes she would anticipate the fall of her father’s face when he was reading bad news. Nothing especially noticeable, even for someone who was studying magic.</p>
<p>If anything, her mother would say, the studying seemed to ground her more into real life. Anchor her somewhere concrete in time and prevent her from spending her life with her head above the clouds. She was prodigious, according to her tutors. One of the most powerful mages they had ever seen.</p>
<p>Her youngest siblings were equally prodigious, unfortunately their field of study was dodging their tutors. Lazuli had been in her study room in the tower when the alarms she had set on her sibling’s classroom went off. She glanced at the clock and noted that she had been reading for the past three hours. An acceptable period  for a break.</p>
<p>Grabbing her staff she glanced out of the door and saw no one on the staircase. She nearly started down herself and then stopped as she felt something, like a memory coming back to her, She returned to her study and poked her head out of the window.</p>
<p>There are many things people might expect to find when poking their head out of the highest tower of Castle Candy: birds, a magnificent view, sometimes even a faerie path outlined in the trees. Princess Sapphria and Prince Amethar of the House of Rocks were not on the list. And yet there they were, climbing down a rope made of tied sheets.</p>
<p>Lazuli thought for a second. She thought about what Rococoa or Citrina would do in the situation. She thought about what her parents would want her to do in this situation. And then she thought about what would be fun to do in this situation. She smiled, stepped up onto the ledge of the window, and cast Feather Fall as she let herself fall backwards.</p>
<p>Ame and Sapphria were so focused on their climb down that they didn’t notice her until she was right beside them.</p>
<p>‘You know-’ Shrieks of surprise.</p>
<p>‘You know,’ she continued calmly. ‘If you two put half as much effort into your actual studies as you did into these escape attempts, you’d probably surpass all the rest of us in a matter of days.’</p>
<p>Sapphria, dressed in one of her brother's doublets with her braided up and out of her way stuck her tongue out at Lazuli. Ame who modeled himself on Sapphria’s worst impulses with uncontrolled delight did the same.</p>
<p>‘We don’t want to be like you, you’re all so boring!’</p>
<p>‘Yeah!’ Amethar shouted in agreement.</p>
<p>‘Oh! I’m boring, am I? Well I guess then I have to do the most boring thing possible here, don’t I? Lazuli smiled and reaching out she used grabbed both of them by the collar and teleported them back into classroom.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Saint Citrina</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Amethar wasn’t used to Citrina getting mad. Of all of his sisters she was the most unshakeable. One of the youngest Primogens ever to be selected by the Bulbian Chruch, Citrina was known in all of Calorum for her ease and sense of peace. So when she was mad, it was an event. It was even more so in this case because the person getting mad right back at Citrina was Lazuli.</p>
<p>His other sisters were just as confused as he was. Rococoa in the stern, stoic way that meant she had been caught on the wrong foot unexpectedly. Sapphria vacillated wildly between concern for the cause of the blow up, and excited curiosity at what had caused the most level headed of the Rocks children to erupt in a shouting match.</p>
<p>As it stood things were at a standstill. There had been the one big fight and then the fighters had returned to their corners. It did not look like there would be a Round Two , but, the idea of Round One had been an impossibility before last week.</p>
<p>Apart from Theo no one had even been nearby when the fight had started. And the only information he had was that it somehow involved the Order of the Spinning Star, the most closely guarded of Lazuli’s secrets.</p>
<p>Sapphria and Amethar tried to brainstorm together what the fight could have been about, but they came up empty. And so she had hatched a plan. Well, sort of.</p>
<p>Amethar didn’t spend a lot of time in the Bulbian chapel in Castle Candy. In the chapel you were often asked to be quiet and meditate on the teachings of the Church, and Amethar had better things to do. Sparring with Rococoa or making mischief with Sapphria. Hell, even watching Lazuli study magic could be interesting. He was proud of Citrina, loved her with all his heart; but their interests didn’t often align.</p>
<p>Citrina didn’t comment on any of this when he approached her that morning and asked to spend the day with her. Instead she had smiled so bright it had made his heart twinge and dragged him behind her by the hand. She had avoided the other chaplain members and instead brought him directly to her study where she had asked him to listen while she read from the book she often wrote in.</p>
<p>‘My main concern is making the writings of the Church more accessible Amethar. And you, of all of our siblings, have always had the easiest time talking to the people.’</p>
<p>Amethar had ducked his head under an unusual feeling of modesty, touched that his sister thought he might contribute to her work. He had been so flattered in fact, that he hadn’t didn’t remember his mission from Sapphria until they paused to eat lunch.</p>
<p>‘So,’ he said, searching for a place to start. ‘The Bulb is kind of like the big authority in the Church right? It determines what’s right and wrong?’</p>
<p>‘That’s a very good question Amethar. The Bulb isn’t like a teacher or a parent. It doesn’t admonish you when you do something wrong or pat you on the head when you do something right. It shines on all of the citizens of Calorum, be they poor or rich, royalty or commoner, powerful or weak.’</p>
<p>Amethar nodded, but he wasn’t really sure that he understood.</p>
<p>‘Ok, but the Church still has lessons right? About what’s right or wrong?’</p>
<p>‘Yes Amethar, although the Bulb does not speak to us directly it can still be a guiding light in our lives. I truly believe that the Bulb shines most brightly upon those whose actions and words are true.’</p>
<p>‘Is that why you were shouting at Lazuli earlier,’ Amethar asked. ‘She did something untrue?’</p>
<p>Citrina looked at Amethar quietly for a minute. She glanced out of the window, The silence dragged on.</p>
<p>‘We can just drop it-’ Amethar started.</p>
<p>‘No, Amethar, I know you and Sapphria are curious about my fight with Lazuli. I’m sorry that we have caused such chaos and confusion.’</p>
<p>She sighed deeply, and rubbed her forehead with her fingers.</p>
<p>‘As frustrating as I can find her, Lazuli is one of the most true people I know. She’s not being false or anything like that. The two of us have simply reached a parting of the minds that we cannot resolve at this point in time.’</p>
<p>‘But which one of you is wrong?’ Amethar asked.</p>
<p>‘There are going to be situations in which you disagree with your friends and loved ones in the future Amethar, and one of the things you should keep in mind is that arguments are often not as black and white as we’d like.’</p>
<p>‘What do you mean?’</p>
<p>‘I mean that even though there’s a reason that I disagree with Lazuli’s actions, it doesn’t make her objectively wrong. Many things and ideas can co-exist in this world Amethar and those who say that only one way of being and thinking is correct? Well those people often have things to gain from every person thinking and behaving in a particular way.’</p>
<p>Amethar sat for a minute and turned this idea over in his head. He didn’t feel like he had accomplished what Sapphria had sent him here to do, but he also didn’t want to push anymore. His sister looked very sad in her chair, surrounded by the light of the window behind her.</p>
<p>‘Well, let’s get back to your book then! I want to make sure everyone in Calorum knows how smart my sisters are!’ Amethar declared loudly, shifting his chair up so that his knees knocked with Citrina’s under the table.</p>
<p>Citrina shook herself out of her mood and laughed softly.</p>
<p>‘It’s not about how smart I am, Ame!’ she scolded playfully as she opened to where they had left off.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Princess Sapphria and Prince Amethar</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sapphria was the youngest of the Rocks daugters. Her older sisters were nice enough but she sometimes found it hard to relate to them. Rococoa was already a full grown woman when she was born, just two weeks after the eldest’s All Saints Day. The age gap meant that Rococoa was often more like a third parent than a sibling. Lazuli was a bit younger but she had been absorbed in her studies so much that they have never been able to spend much time together anyway. And Citrina, well she was a literal Saint. As a child she had been kind and virtuous to the point of boredom for her younger sister.</p>
<p>Her parents, meanwhile, were busy with the politics of the realm. Arranging marriages and creating (or abandoning) various treaties and allies. After the first couple of years the Queen had been too caught up in her silent war with Rococoa and Lazuli to pay much attention to her youngest daughters.</p>
<p>Which was not to say that Sapphria was abandoned. She, like her sisters, had the finest tutors in all of Candia. She had nurse maids and servants at her beck and call. Her every need was seen to at the merest mention. It was all incredibly boring.</p>
<p>The years between her 2<sup>nd</sup> birthday and Amethar’s birth, were the loneliest of her life. And so when Amethar was born, Sapphria made a promise to herself. She held her Baby Brother in her arms as her mother lay resting, the nurses hovering carefully in concern. And she whispered softly to him</p>
<p>‘I’m going to be the best Big Sister you’ll ever have. I’m not going to be caught up in studies or politics or boring Church stuff. We’re going to be best friends.’</p>
<p>And this was a promise she kept.</p>
<p>Amethar grew up content in the shadows of his eldest sisters. He revered Rococoa for her martial prowess. Marveled at the magic the seemed to flow like sugar syrup from Lazuli’s fingertips. Even Citrina and her Saintly kindness were amazing to Amethar. He held them all in the highest of regards. But the sister he loved the most and the hardest was Sapphria.</p>
<p>The two spent theid childhood days sneaking together through the Castle halls. Stealing sweet treats from the kitchen, playing pranks on unsuspecting servants.</p>
<p>If Sapphria was bored and Amethar was stuck in lessons, she would create a straw puppet and replace it for her brother. The first time they were lectured by their parents for this particular mischief, Amethar had held his sister’s hand in solidarity even as their mother towered above them in her righteous fury.</p>
<p>And years later after a similar dressing down from Rococoa, it was Sapphria who asked to meet the love of Amethar’s life, Catherine Ghee.</p>
<p>Catherine was living in a small hut in the town that had become their main base of operations. She was rather plain, at least by Amethar’s usual standards. But she was interesting.</p>
<p>A lot of the Dairy Islanders accompanying them were also common born and even the soldiers tended towards deference for the most part. Manta Ray was unusual in his friendship with Amethar. But Catherine strode up to Sapphria and held her gaze without hesitation. There was mischief in her eyes, a passion that shone ever brightly when she watched her new husband.</p>
<p>It was a good match for Amethar.</p>
  </div></div>
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